The 19th Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival celebrates the works of two internationally acclaimed filmmakers with new and retrospective works responding to the contemporary moment and re-interpreting the contexts of their production. Respectively, Basma al-Sharif and Eduardo Williams bring works examining histories that demand remembrance and cyclical narratives of the perpetual present.

Basma al-Sharif’s films and installations move backward and forward in history, between place and non-place; she confronts the legacy of colonialism through satirical, immersive, and lyrical works. al-Sharif will present We Began by Measuring Distance (Egypt, 2009), The Story of Milk and Honey (Lebanon, 2011), Home Movies Gaza (France, Palestine, 2013) and the UK Festival Premiere of Sky Hopinka’s Wawa (United States, 2014) followed by a Q&A on Friday 8 March. On Saturday, there is an opportunity to see al-Sharif’s first feature film Ouroboros (2017), an experimental homage to the Gaza Strip and to the possibility of hope against hopelessness. Closing this Filmmaker in Focus programme is al-Sharif’s most recent work CAPTIAL (Egypt, Italy, Germany, 2023) will be screened alongside Renée’s Room (France, 2016) and frequent collaborator Diego Macron’s Monelle (Italy, 2017).

Eduardo Williams’ films explore a fluid mode of observation, looking for shared relations and spontaneous adventures within physical and virtual networks. Williams will present the complete cycle of The Human Surge, a freeform odyssey of sociality and technology shot entirely on a 360-degree camera. Saturday and Sunday will feature The Human Surge (Argentina, 2016) and UK Premiere of The Human Surge 3 (Argentina, Portugal, Brazil, Netherlands, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Peru, 2024) followed by a Q&A.